MMORPG.com Players' Choice Awards 2024 Winners

2024 has been a great year in gaming, and MMORPGs had their day in the spotlight quite a few times throughout this year. With two of the largest MMOs on the market seeing expansions in the same year, Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail and World of Warcraft: The War Within, the heaviest hitters made quite the splash. This was in addition to expansions for games such as The Elder Scrolls Online, Guild Wars 2, Black Desert Online, and much more, expanding some of the most popular games in the genre. 

We also saw multiple heavy-hitter RPGs hit the market this year, from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth in February, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree in July, and Metaphor: ReFantazio in October; there were plenty of games to keep us busy in between those marathon MMO sessions. 

It hasn't been an easy year for the industry, though, from Blue Protocol's disappointing cancelation and sunset announcement, massive layoffs across the industry, including some MMO studios such as Star Trek Online developer Cryptic and Palia studio Singularity 6. However, it's also been a year with quite a few surprises. 

As is our annual tradition, we put the vote to you, our readers, to decide what the Players' Choice awards for 2024. Arguably, these awards are more important than our staff picks (which will come later this week) as they provide a snapshot into the very heart and pulse of the players that make MMOs and gaming as a whole incredible. Let's dive in.

Best Battle Royale of 2024 - Players' Choice: Fortnite

Runner-up: Call of Duty: Warzone

It feels redundant to say that Fortnite has had a big year when nearly every year is a big one for Epic's battle royale, but 2024 had its share of milestones. From the launch of Lego Fortniteand Rocket Racing , as well as doubling down on giant festivals in its marquee battle royale mode (including capping 2024 off with Mariah Carey in the ongoing Winterfest 2024), Epic has shown no sign of stopping its biggest money-maker into 2025.

Best MMO Lite of 2024 - Players' Choice: No Man's Sky

Runner-up: Fallout 76

No Man's Sky continued its trend of just pumping out stellar, transformative, and most importantly, free updates to its sci-fi exploration game in 2024. Hello Games' No Man's Sky saw a graphics overhaul in 2024, new expeditions, fishing, and cross-save and so much more this year, just adding onto the myriad reasons to keep logging into the game throughout the year to explore the unknown. Despite the fact that we know Hello Games is working on its next big title, Light No Fire, it seems No Man's Sky players can expect more of the same from the studio in 2025.

Best Indie MMO of 2024 - Players' Choice: Albion Online

Runner-up: Corepunk

Albion Online takes home the Players' Choice for Best Indie MMO in 2024 for the second year in a row, and it's no wonder. The MMO saw multiple major updates throughout the year, from the Crystal Raiders update to closing out the year with a massive overhaul to its open world with the Horizons update. 2025 looks to be just as good with the announcement the team is shifting to a two-month seasonal update to bring faster, more impactful updates, and much more.

Most Anticipated - Players' Choice: Ashes of Creation

Runner-up: Amazon's upcoming LotR MMO

Ashes of Creation is among the many crowdfunded MMOs that have been in development for years, with its Kickstarter initially wrapping up eight years ago in 2016. Since then, we've seen development in a few stages, from a battle royale game, Ashes of Creation: Apocalypse, releasing in 2018 and shuttering in 2020, while the team also made the switch from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5 along the way. This year saw the start of its Alpha 2 phase, the drop of the NDA of the MMO during these tests, allowing interested players to actually see and read what the MMO looks and feels like at this stage. 

When Ashes of Creation will actually release is really anyone's guess at this point, but it's exciting to see real progress on the MMO, and it seems our readers agree, voting it the most anticipated game on the horizon.

Most Improved MMO 2024 - Players' Choice: New World: Aeternum

Runner-up: Black Desert Online

For the second year in a row, New World has won our Players' Choice for the most improved, though this time, it's thanks to a major overhaul of the MMO. New World: Aeternum isn't technically a new game, especially if you're playing on PC, but it brought with it major overhauls to everything from the storyline, camera, overhauling Cutlass Keys to create the MMO's first ever forced PvP zone, and so much more. Additionally, a launch on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 with full cross play (though crucially not cross progression) has seen an influx of new players to help keep the MMO thriving well into 2025 and beyond.

Best Mobile MMO of 2024 - Players' Choice: Albion Online

Runner-up: Black Desert Mobile

Albion Online is the winner of the Players' Choice for Best Mobile MMO in 2024, and for good reason. With full crossplay and cross-progression with its non-mobile counterpart, Albion Online brings its incredible gameplay, PvP, and more with you wherever you go. What makes Albion Online stand out as well from many of mobile's various MMO-esque games is that it's a full, fledged MMO experience that doesn't include many of the mechanics that make mobile MMOs feel like they are autoplaying or simply just a marketplace with fancy graphics. Instead, this is the real deal.

Biggest Disappointment - Players' Choice: So Many Crowdfunded MMOs Feeling Nowhere Close To Launching

Runner-up: Games Industry Layoffs Continued At A Record Pace

Crowdfunded MMOs have become ubiquitous with long timelines. With some games in development for a decade, all the while happily taking potential players' money throughout the years, it's no wonder that the fact so many of them feel nowhere near release. From Star Citizen's record number of dollars raised in its life to Camelot Unchained, which feels like it's on the backburner for whatever the team is doing with Final Stand: Ragnarok, crowdfunded MMOs will continue to be a sore spot for many long-time MMO fans. 

There is some hope, though: Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen has finally launched into Early Access after a decade in development, while Ashes of Creation's Alpha 2 testing and dropping of its NDA is a sign it could be making real progress again. But time will tell.

Biggest Surprise - Players' Choice: World of Warcraft Player Housing

Runner-up: City of Heroes Homecoming Recognized Officially By NCSoft

World of Warcraft finally announced a feature fans have been clamoring for the MMO to add for nearly twenty years: player housing. Coming with its next expansion, Midnight, the team made the announcement during Warcraft's 30th Anniversary stream last month, to the exultation of every denizen that has called Azeroth home since 2004. What player housing will look like exactly remains to be seen, but I'm not sure we had WoW finally figuring out a way to add this feature on our 2024 bingo card. But we'll take it for sure.

Best ARPG of 2024 - Players' Choice: Path of Exile 2

Runner-up: Diablo IV

It's no secret we love Path of Exile 2. As one of the highest reviewed games on the site in 2024, this ARPG, despite being in Early Access, is one of the best experiences we've had throughout the year. And it seems y'all agree, voting it overwhelmingly the Best ARPG of 2024. Path of Exile 2 has long been in development, first being announced in 2019 and finally hitting digital shelves this year. While it's not complete - that should come sometime next year, Path of Exile 2 still offers a robust experience, with its streamlining of its many systems to make it easier to get into, but still retains the high-end complexity that fans of the first game crave at the end game. Grinding Gear Games should justifiably be proud of the work they've done, and it's exciting knowing that this is just the beginning.

Best Survival Game of 2024 - Players' Choice: Valheim

Runner-up: Palworld

Valheim narrowly beat out Palworld to retain its title as our Players' Choice Best Survival Game for the third year in a row. There is something about Viking purgatory that keeps drawing us back in, from its lax survival aspects that put the focus on the adventure and not how much food and water you've drank, to the iconic art style, Valheim still plugs away as one of the best Survival experiences on the market right now. New updates, such as October's The Bog Witch update shows that Iron Gate is still hard at work bringing the best experience they can to their ardent player base. Oh, and there's a board game coming, too.

Best MMO Expansion of 2024 - Players' Choice: World of Warcraft: The War Within

Runner-up: Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds

Winning by a single vote, the Best MMO Expansion of 2024, according to our readers, is World of Warcraft: The War Within. The first installment in a three-part expansion series dubbed the Worldsoul Saga, The War Within brought an incredible story that pay off many beats that have been building for years, phenomenal quests and dynamic dungeons, as well as its new Delves system to give solo and small group players a way to really dive into an end game experience on solid footing. Robin, in our review, praised nearly every aspect of The War Within, and it sets up the third decade of World of Warcraft well to succeed. 

Best RPG of 2024 - Players' Choice: Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Runner-up: Dragon's Dogma 2

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is an amazing follow-up to one of the best games made in recent memory, with FromSoftware clicking on all cylinders. With some of the most challenging, yet rewarding combat systems we've experienced in a game in a long time, every moment of Shadow of the Erdtree felt compelling to play. A visual masterpiece, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree continues its impressive world-building through its unique take on storytelling and visuals. For any Elden Ring or Soulslike fan, this is a must play.

MMORPG of the Year - Players' Choice: World of Warcraft Retail/Classic

Runners-up: Guild Wars 2, Final Fantasy XIV

The 20th Anniversary of World of Warcraft has been a banner year for the legendary MMO. From its award winning expansion, The War Within, to its incredible World of Warcraft Classic experience in 2024, there's been no shortage of a good time for fans of Azeroth. With the release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Classic, Mists of Pandaria Remix, the return of the MMO to China, experimentation with new modes such as Plunderstorm, and the eventual release of The War Within, 2024 was a huge year for Blizzard's tentpole game. And the future is bright, with Midnight (and player housing) on the horizon, new Season of Discovery phases for Classic, and a return to Mists of Pandaria with the next major Classic expansion.

Congratulations to all our Players' Choice Poll winners!